yes, but you don't need to embrace emotional suppression to embrace peace. Pacifism isn't necessarily correlated with greater emotional control. They could have had an MLK or Gandhi-like figure who preached peace but didn't teach emotional suppression.

That MLK or Gandhi-like figure was basically Surak. It was Surak who promoted peace by living a life based on logic rather than emotional impulses. The suppression of the otherwise extremely volatile (if not frequent erratic or even dangerous) Vulcan emotions was the key ingredient in that philsophy, IMO.

to clarify, I understand that Vulcan society was being torn apart by war at one point. I realize that they needed a philosophy to promote peace. What I'm asking is why emotional suppression was needed. Originally it was because Vulcans were so naturally violent when their emotions weren't strictly controlled, but Trek later showed us that wasn't the case with some Vulcans.

There's always exceptions to anything--not all Vulcans are the same just like how not all Humans are the same--but I do think Surak's philosophy of logical deduction over emotional impulses was beneficial to Vulcan civilization in general, though.

For all intents and purposes, Vulcans may have self-annihilated themselves millennia ago if they hadn't learned to rein in those emotions. They may have let the Klingons look like angels in comparison, IMO.

__________________"Don't sweat the small stuff--it makes you small-minded..."